Vila from Slavic folklore could transform into any animal—falcon, wolf, swan or mare. She’s seen riding horses or elks in hunting & often could be seen dancing in circle with other Vile. She could seduce heroes in fairytales or sometimes heal wounds in battle.

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"The Goose Girl" Grimm c1815
"Falada, Falada, thou art dead, and all the joy in my life has fled"
"Alas, alas, if your mother knew, her loving heart would break in two"
https://t.co/fuordfMtSn
🎨
1 Jiří Trnka (1912-69 Czech)
2 Anne Anderson (1874-1952 Scottish)

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The Wild Swans by Hans Christian Andersen is a tale about eleven princes who are turned into swans. Their sister, Lisa must save them by spinning nettles into thread to make eleven coats. She must not speak a word until she is done or her brothers will die.

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The mannbjørn (man-bear) is a type of shapeshifter in Nordic folklore - a man who could take the form of a bear. Sometimes a curse other times a power. Some say they would kill heavily pregnant women and steal their male babies and raise them to become man-bears

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Lady White Snake gained the power to become human through eating immortality pills, and used her powers to save a green snake who became her ally: the two set out to find the boy who had dropped the pills, and win his heart for Lady White Snake

🖼: J. Valiente

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To save the fox from the fox hunters, the nobles' laundress gave him first pants, then a shirt, and whole attire of a fox hunter. Then he demanded her horse. He finally insulted her and then rode off: the fox had fully become what hunted him.

🖼: K. McLaughlan

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Amphitrite was Queen of the Seas and wife of the sea god Poseidon. Dolphins helped him win her heart by speaking softly to her of his love. There were many dolphins living in the Mediterranean then . . . Draw the dolphin:

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Gugalanna, the Bull of Heaven, was an ancient Sumerian god who could change into a fearsome bull. He was sent by the gods to kill Gilgamesh for rejecting the advances of Inanna-the queen of heaven. He was, unfortunately, slain by the hero.

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Among the Creole families or Trinidad and Tobago, a magic is passed down that can transform a soul into a Lagahoo, a kind of werewolf descended from the loup-garou. To kill this person you must beat them with an anointed stick until they are black mists.

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ODETTE Tchaikovsky’s Swan Queen swims on a lake made from her mother's tears after a sorcerer, Baron von Rothbart, transforms her into a swan; at night she regains her human form. Anna Pavlova's dying swan dress; Mikhail Vrubel's Swan Princess .

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In the Norwegian fairy tale 'East of the Sun and West of the Moon,' the hero is transformed into a bear by his wicked stepmother, who wishes to force him to marry her daughter
Illustrations by Kay Nielsen (1922 edition) https://t.co/oRZ9BYMhUH

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The men of Odysseus ate the cheese and bread mixed with honey readily and soon fell asleep; only one escaped. By the time Odysseus arrived, they were pigs to the last man, enchanted to live as they truly were: boarish guests in the house of a sorceress.

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A father’s angry wish turns 7 brothers into ravens; their sister pledges to rescue them, learns from the stars they're locked inside a glass mountain, sacrifices her finger to unlock its door, frees them from the curse 🎨Jana Heidersdorf https://t.co/SATblr5W1E

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A Greek myth tells of Leda & the Swan in which the god Zeus, in the form of a swan, seduces/rapes Leda.

…the great wings beating still
Above the staggering girl, her thighs caressed
By the dark webs, her nape caught in his bill.
WB Yeats

🎨Gustave Moreau

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The 6th Doctor and his shapeshifting companion (who happens to like being the shape of a penguin) Frobisher!

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Playing long into the night....
by Ida Rentoul Outhwaite, 1930.

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In the Grimms' tale, "The Fisherman and his Wife," the poor fisherman catches an enchanting fish who promises him to grant wishes in return for freedom. But his wife's boundless greed ultimately infuriates the fish, turning them back into poor conditions.

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There had been helper Fates in old lore, but it’s Perrault who gave us the first “fairy godmother” in his 17th-cen Cinderella. Perrault’s sense of French beauty, magic, & sparkle, also gave us the glass slipper. A magical man. 💫

🎨Rackham, Doré, Sterrett

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